THE SOCIAL SHAPING OF INTERNET FROM BELOW · 2019. 12. 21. · ISPs, and created models almost like non-profit franchises, for how to set up small cybercafes or telecenters. Within

SHAPING THE INTERNET FROM BELOW 1

THE SOCIAL SHAPING OF INTERNET FROM BELOW:

NGOs and government’s roles in Internet development in Brazil and Peru

Martha Fuentes-Bautista, Joseph Straubhaar and Jeremiah Spence

University of Texas at Austin, USA

Paper presented to the Technology and Communication Division of the

53rd

Annual conference of the International Communications Association

San Diego, CA - May 2003


ABSTRACT

The social shaping of Internet from below

This paper argues that novel approaches to social development of the Internet have emerged in

Latin America. NGOs and social movements were a much greater influence on the early

development of the Internet there, relative to commercial and other actors. This seems to have

left important effects on the role of the Internet in society. The very early use of the Internet as a

international tool for organizing resources and support by the Zapatistas in 1991 was only the

most visible of a number of ways that NGOs, social movements and political groups throughout

Latin America began to use the Internet to network among each other and mobilize support

abroad. Small NGOs in Brazil were often using the Internet before medium size businesses.

Peru developed extensive public Internet access before the United States did. We argue that this

has given these groups within civil society a considerable agility in organizing and acting that

may well create a lasting effect on relative power relations with other more traditional sectors of

society.

We analyze this different path of Internet development as social construction of technology and

public policy in societies with distinct histories. We found several converging factors shaping

public access to the Net. First, many activists turned in the 1980s away from state-centered

political work to grassroots organizing, often using alternative media. Second, a quite different

relationship had developed between university and society in Peru and Brazil, which led

professors and students to take technology into activism almost as soon as they discovered it

themselves. Third, several NGOs, both global like the U.S.-based Association for Progressive

Communications, and national like IBASE in Brazil or the Red Cientifica Peruana in Peru, built

on universities and other early knowledge bases about the Internet to focus their operations on

bringing the Internet as an organizing tool to a wide range of other NGOs and social

movements. These NGOs trained people in how to use the Internet for networking and

organizing, trained them in the technical use of the Internet, created and operated non-profit

ISPs, and created models almost like non-profit franchises, for how to set up small cybercafes or

telecenters.

Within these general approaches, there were an interesting variety of approaches, both early in

the late 1980s-early 1990s and in the late 1990s to present. This paper concentrates on several

cases within Brazil and on the Red Cientifica Peruana in Peru. The study finds that approaches

have depended in large measure on: (1) different understandings of the role of technology for

social welfare; (2) the meaning of public access to the Internet; (3) the availability of

telecommunications, and (4) ISP infrastructure. Those in turn depend on both government

regulation of telecommunications and developments within private industry in

telecommunications and Internet Service Provision. Civil society in Peru had more open space to

use Internet. Telecom use was more open to small businesses. RCP quasi franchise model could

multiply freely. Even after privatization, Telefonica left the market open to small business rather

than occupying it itself, so a space was created in which many small access centers, called

cabinas publicas, flourished. Brazil had more directive policy. Brazilian telecommunication

development was more directly driven by corporate and state interest. Both telecom and ISP

market were quickly occupied by larger businesses. By the mid-1990s, however it became clear

that Internet access needs by poorer people were not being met, so state and local governments,

as well as NGOs have begun to create a number of telecenters.


INTRODUCTION

Theories of the information society see technology as the engine of social change and economic

progress. From Daniel Bell’s concept of “intellectual technology” to Manuel Castells’ notion of

“knowledge technology” (1996) information technologies are placed core of social development.

Making use of Kranzberg’s axiom, Castells reminds us that “technology is neither good, nor bad,

nor is it neutral” (p.65). His conception of technology may be better identified as a contingent

view, a perspective that looks at a specific technology in the particular historical and social

setting in which it is deployed. Technology may be a problem-solver or problem-generator, but it

is essentially malleable allowing for its selective adoption. This notion attempts to assess both

social and technological aspects involved in the process of change, and call for the definition of

strategies or policies in this respect. Even this more critical vision, keeps technology as a force

that independently acts outside of society carrying “impacts” and “influences” on society.

Studies on Internet development have frequently assumed such perspectives. DiMaggio et al.’s

(2001) review on social research of the Internet calls attention to the large amount of studies that

has focused on online communities, the Internet's impact on inequality, politics, organizations,

and culture. However, the authors argue, all this voluminous research reveals “the need to

develop explanatory models that distinguish between different modes of Internet use and that tie

behavior directly to social and institutional context” (329). Our study tries to answer this call

providing and empirical understanding of the connections and differences between the Network

development and social and institutional practices in the specific context of societies with

distinct cultural, economic and political trajectory of Internet development. Through the study of

the social and economic forces at play in the development of Internet in Brazil and Peru, we

attempt to provide a framework for understanding the emergence and evolution of the Network

in two developing nations. Our thesis is that Brazil and Peru present different directions of

network development. Specifically, both saw creative innovations in policy from below by

NGOs who sought to create new forms of access to the Internet for leaders of social movements

and NGOs. However, these efforts took different paths precisely because of the differences in

the basic understanding of technology’s role in social development and the role of public access

to achieve this goal. We also analyze the impact of telecommunication infrastructures that had

been developed by previous state-led policies, different approaches to commercialization of the

Internet, and regulatory goals. We try to understand these differences through a comparative case

study method of the social and institutional forces at play in both cases. Implications for issues of

access and inequality are further discussed.

THEORY

Social forces shaping Internet

The literature on Internet development includes a good amount of studies that keep track of the

rollout of the Network in particular countries and internationally. Discussions of the ‘digital

divide’ and access commonly focus on indicators of infrastructure development (number of host,

computer, telephones), and demand (number of users, subscribers, etc). Uneven distribution of

variables of connectivity, and adoption rates are problems explored by these kinds on studies.


Cross-country comparisons in particular, have tended to be centered in these sorts of variables

(ITU 1999; Paltridge & Ypsilanti 1997). More refined models used to study the global diffusion

of the network have incorporated variables such as income, education and language (Barnett et

al., 2001). Comparisons of same portals and web sites across country domains have found

differences on local content made available on line (Rao et al, 1999) positively related to income

and population (Fuentes-Bautista et al., 2001). We will see below that indicators of growth in

access and use can reflect both large and subtle differences in social models of the Internet.

These types of studies have mapped the advance of the network helping to describe major trends,

and to identify main structural factors accounting for them. However, for the major picture

sketched by this studies need of deeper understanding of the process and context by which

adoption and use proceed in society. DiMaggio et al. (2001) remind that research on

technological change has taught us that the relationship between technology and society is never

unidirectional. Technologies are developed, shaped, and adopted, responding to social needs, and

under political and economic circumstances. Moreover, as tools of social interaction, media

technologies adopt the contours of society in which it is used. The statement is particular relevant

for the analysis of Internet development. The Internet is even more versatile because it combines

point-to-point and broadcast capability within a single network (Neumann, 1991; Robinson et al

2000b, Wellman 2001). It can be a telephone, email, chat rooms, and other forms of real-time

communication between individuals. It can serve as a library, repository of all kind of

information (text, video, sound) or operate as conventional mass medium through broadcast or

narrowcast media. “Precisely because it can be all of these things at once—because it affords

users choices among multiple modes of appropriation that coexist at any given time—the

Internet is unprecedentedly malleable. This malleability raises the stakes for actors who wish to

shape its evolution” (DiMaggio et al, 2001).

Few studies have engaged in the discussion or empirical research of institutional and social

factors accounting for differences in Network diffusion or the growth of access points to the

network. Hargittai (1996) tests the impact of institutional factors through the presence or absence

of commercial Internet Service Providers (ISP) worldwide. The author reports that in 1995 three

quarters of the developed nations had ISP operating in their markets, while only 10% of

developing countries had commercial access.

Through an ethnographic work, Miller & Slater (2000) study the diffusion and adoption of

Internet in Trinidad. By 1999 Trinidad exhibited a high Internet penetration in comparison with

other less developed countries (LDC). While stratified by income, the Network reached a

significant amount of people and close to 30% of the country households had at least one regular

user. After working with various communities in the island over a year, the authors conclude that

the use of email by residents of an island nation that exports its most successful young people

abroad was a socio-cultural factor as important as infrastructure and economic development

represented by Trinidad's comparatively strong communications infrastructure and healthy

economy. In other words, priorities of the locality, the social and cultural practices shape the

contours of Internet in this Caribbean nation.

From a political economy of the Web, Schiller, D. (1999) discusses in depth the case of the U.S.

and its implications for the global Network rollout. Schiller delineates the creation and history of


cyberspace by the military, government, and certain higher education institutions from the U.S.

through the developed nations to the rest of the world following the rationale of “digital

capitalism”. In Schiller's terminology digital capitalism refers to the condition where "(ICTs)

Networks are directly generalizing the social and cultural range of the capitalist economy as

never before" (xiv). The analysis contextualizes particularly the local and regional levels of

institutional and socio-cultural dynamics, which have been influencing and continuously shaping

the digitalization of global economic production and social spaces of the developed economies

(USA in particular). The digitalization process has followed the differential trajectory of digital

capitalism at supra-regional (North America), national, sub-regional, and local spaces:

"Sophisticated network systems in turn comprised the increasingly essential

infrastructure for engorged transnational corporations, pursuing export-oriented,

regionally or even globally integrated production strategies. Corresponding to the

ongoing buildup of transnational production chains, therefore, was a powerful

pan-corporate attempt to subject worldwide telecommunications policy to United

States - originated, neo-liberal regulatory norms" (40).

Schiller contends that this neo-liberal and capitalist networking drive originated in the U. S. have

set up the geo-techno-political dynamics in and outside the U.S. In this context, problems of

inequality as evidenced by the digital divide cannot be regarded as a simple problem of access.

He argues that “the Internet’s social exclusivity comprises an alluring enticement to many

market-segmenting advertisers” (141) who are only interested in targeting high income

audiences. The drive of the market does not the guarantees balanced Network growth. One flaw

in his analysis is that it does not consider potentially different forms of market definition and

drive outside the United States, indeed outside the major industrialized countries.

Aldrich (1999) has tried to extend the analysis beyond government and corporations to the

influence of other social agents upon the development of the Internet. In his analysis of the Web

from the standpoint of the “community” that makes the Internet industry, the author distinguishes

among governance structures (regulators and informal consortia), commercial users, service

providers to those users, browser developers, and other "infrastructural populations" (hardware

and software firms, ISPs, search engines, and portal sites) that occupy niches in the Web's

ecology. He discusses the major ways in which these bodies relate to each other and the impact

of such relationships on Network’s trends.

From the diffusion of innovation paradigm, Singhal and Rogers (2001) recently study the process

of informatization of India. The authors see Internet development in the context of recent social

changes in Indian society, resulting from the applications of new communication technologies

such as satellites, cable television. Progress in informatization of the country is researched

through the influence of the innovators or visionaries of the software industry, the development

of small businesses in the context of liberalization and global forces and agents are found as

important factors accounting for these trends.

From a social construction of reality perspective, and in the tradition of social shaping of

technology research, this work seeks to describe and compare the evolution of Internet

development in Brazil and Peru looking at the interplay of institutions engaged in the process


(government, industry and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and universities) in a

regulatory context characterized by liberalization policies globally generated. We understand

‘social construction’ in the tradition of the sociology of knowledge (Berger and Luckmann,

1967). It calls for the recognition of the importance of discourse, shared experiences, web of

social relations, and institutional process of legitimacy that constitute the control mechanisms

that channel individual and collective action. The social shaping of technology' (SST) proposes

to explore a range of factors - organisational, political, economic and cultural - which pattern the

implementation of technology (MacKenzie & Wajcman, 1985; Williams and Edge, 1996).

As Williams and Edge (1996) explains, a central concern of SST is the concept that there are

`choices' (though not necessarily conscious choices) in both the design of artefacts and systems,

and in the direction or trajectory of innovation programmes. The analysis of the different routes

available and the rationale supporting the chosen path of development are part of the basic

method proposed by SST. This approach offers valuable insight for researchers interested in the

technology policy studies. Under this paradigm, policy studies of technology examine the values

and interests of individuals and institutions involved in the process of implementation of the

technology. They also pay close attention to the broader institutional and societal context -

including market structures and dynamics, culture, legislation and politics – that underpins

technology. Williams and Edge have called attention to the value of cross-national comparisons

of these processes as a mean of assessing the influence of particular social formations upon the

characteristics of technology.

Few studies have used the SST as a framework to analyze the implementation and adoption of

new media across borders. Kubicek, Dutton and Williams (1997) offer a compilation of works or

case studies on different issues of Internet policy in the U.S. and varied European countries. By

reviewing policy documents and following the history of information infrastructure initiatives,

Schneider (1997) sets forth the comparison from a public policy perspective focusing on

technological pools and environments, cultural and ideological structures, economic and

industrial structures and political institutional structure and policy styles. The author finds major

differences between the dominant technological ideologies and bargaining process in policies of

Europe and the U.S. In the first level, American populace and institutions show more optimism

about the capacity of technology as a problem solver. Europe, in contrast, shows the tendency to

see technology as generating different and more complex problems that regulation ought to

handle. The Jeffersonian democratic vision of technology in the U.S. seems to lead to two

different outcomes. First, there is a more compact base line and less dissidence in early stages of

the bargaining process. Second, there is a larger market-like, open competition of ideas during

the legislation process. In contrast, European countries tend to bargained their policies in the

early stages of the policy cycle through a myriad of networks and constituencies. Schneider

contends that the resulting dynamics have impacted the speed of network rollout and

technological adoption.

SST has helped to explain adoption or rejection of particular applications of the new technology.

Comparing divergences and similarities of interpretations offered by the diffusion of innovations

paradigm and the SST perspective, Lievrouw (2002) examines the development of videotext and

email to identify instances that explain the failure of the first and the success of the second.

Lievrouw finds that videotext developers’ faith on the mere ability of technology to attract users


misled them making them blind to everyday users and their everyday needs of information. In

contrast, email – as a part of the underlying ARPANET infrastructure- was transformed and

diffused by the ‘user activism’ and the user-innovator dynamic that surrounded the ARPA

project. Networks of innovators closely knit to network of users contribute to rapidly perfect the

system to levels of applicability and communication potential enabling quick adoption and

diffusion.

Through the case of the adoption and diffusion of email, the activist/user component emerges as

key to overall diffusion of the Internet. Our work seeks to compare the role of NGOs in the

definition of model of Internet development in Brazil and Peru. We specifically compare

similarities and divergences in the action of social movements that intervene in the policy

process to define policy from below, as well as to offer new access services. In the following

sections, we set the context of this comparative exercise in the case of these two Latin American

nations. First, we discuss the historical trends of telecommunications access policy in Latin

America, and particularly in Brazil and Peru. Second, we introduce the case studies though

historical accounts of Internet development in both countries examining infrastructure

development and role of policy agents (industry, regulatory agencies and NGOs). Our work is

based on secondary data as well as on original interviews with stakeholders and policy makers in

both countries. We conclude with a discussion of the major similarities and differences observed

and implications for issues of access to new technologies.

ANALYSIS

Changing Role of the State in Universal Service Policy in Latin America

Privatization and liberalization of telecommunications begins to redefine the role of state. The

central role of the national state in both making policy and delivering services toward achieving

universal access to telecommunication and the Internet has declined in countries like Brazil and

Peru. There are several reasons. One is that forces of economic globalization have tended to

introduce change in state-centered policy models, pushing states to liberalize competition in,

deregulate and privatize telecommunications. Another is that states in Latin America and

elsewhere have suffered a decline in their ability to supply even basic services, such as

education, due to debt loads and debt-restructuring programs pressed on them by the

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international actors. So a number of other

institutions and forces have begun making policy and offering services in areas that they see the

national state as unlikely to reach, such as creating telecenters for public access.

What some have called the Washington consensus on liberalization of competition and

privatization of government-operated companies in areas like telecommunication has spread

globally with pressure from the United States government, the World Bank, the IMF, private

banks and investors and others. Some have seen this as an essentially ideological operation,

driven by the United States and others whose companies and economic interests benefit from

privatization of state-owned companies and the liberalization of competition which permits

private companies to enter new areas and compete (Hills 1998). Others see the driving force as a

more diffuse push by a variety of interests associated with global capitalism to enter as many

areas of activity as possible, particularly those areas, like telecommunication, whose extension


and modernization are essential to the global financial flows necessary for the expansion of

global capitalism itself (Urey 1995). Some of the actors associated with this process say that their

goal is more basic, the expansion of telecommunications for use by all in the process of

development, with privatization as simply the most feasible current means to achieve that

expansion (Wellenius 1993). Other forces, like the IMF, see debt reduction as paramount and

tend to almost force developing country governments to sell of such assets as part of economic

stabilization programs to reduce their debt (Hills, 1998).

With liberalization and privatization, the state withdraws from some areas, such as operation of

ISPs. With debt and related crises, the national states in many parts of Latin America withdraw

from areas that they might have claimed in earlier eras, such as formation of human capital,

education, information access, etc. All of these processes have tended to reduce the ability of

national states, in Latin America and elsewhere, to maintain current investments in

telecommunications or find new sources of financing to expand telecommunications services

into under-served areas, such as urban poor neighborhoods or rural areas. States have tried

various strategies to continue to pursue universal service in both telephony and the Internet

(Fuentes-Bautista 2001). Some states, like Brazil, have had some limited success in regulations

that mandate service expansion into under-served areas by privatized telecommunications

companies as part of their contracts. However, the overall affect has been to keep the state from

investing in or entering many areas that might be seen as desirable, such as increased rural

services, subsidies for public access connectivity (as the United States has done with the e-Rate

since 1996), or opening and operating public access centers (as the United States has done under

Department of Education and Department of Commerce programs since 1996). This has opened

a space that some new actors have tried to fill.

This fits together very well with initiatives being taken by activists within Latin American

countries like Brazil and Peru. Starting in the 1980s, there was a movement of the locus of

political activism in many parts of Latin America away from pressuring the state to act in new

areas or change national policy to encourage companies to do so toward direct local activism in

areas that had been part of the state domain, like universal service through telecenters, education,

and social services (Escobar and Alvarez. 1992).

State and city governments have also begun to move into new areas, like telecenters for Internet

access, which the national state has not been able to occupy. This is particularly true in countries

which have more decentralized federal systems, like Brazil and Mexico, and in states or

provinces like São Paulo and Nuevo Leon, which have significant concentrations of industry and

other sources of finance, where the state can mobilize resources to create things like telecenters.

Diversifying Approaches to Infrastructure and Human Capital Policy in Brazil and Peru

The traditional state policy monopoly over both infrastructure and human capital formation is

changing, for the reasons noted above. The state had had an exclusive control over infrastructure

like telecommunications in almost all nations until the 1980s. It was often seen as the most

reliable provider, the one with most access to financial resources, and the one that could be most

counted on to act in the public interest (Straubhaar 1995). Similarly, the national state had

usually been seen as the best entity for providing education and training, although in more


federal, decentralized systems, including Brazil and the United States, education was often

thought of as a responsibility of the either the provincial state or the municipality. It seems likely

the national state will remain the main regulator of both telecommunications and education.

Likewise, the State remains as the operator of some services, particularly in providing subsidized

telecommunications connectivity to areas that are too remote to be feasibly profitable for a

commercial company. The state remains a crucial finance source for universal services initiatives

to the rural and poor. Likewise, the State remains the main source of education

Privatization has introduced new corporate actors in infrastructure and related policy discussions

(Straubhaar 1995). Major foreign corporations like Telefonica (Peru and Brazil) or Bell South

(Brazil) now provide most of the privatized telecommunications services in the two countries, so

they are both the focus of and powers within policy discussion and the national level.

Social movements and NGOs have begun taking policy initiatives beyond lobbying government

and/or central service providers. They are creating aspects of infrastructure, such as ISPs,

telecenters, and training programs. They are forming human and social capital by training

people, first movement and NGO leaders, then later focusing on larger groups as individuals.

They are enabling business development by creating free to use franchise models for telecenters,

operating non-profit and for profit ISPs.

Internet History in Latin America: Universities as Initial Focus of Internet Development

As in the United States, universities were a focal point of technological development in general,

so they naturally tended to lead in the initial development or deployment of the Internet into

Latin America in the 1980s. Similarly the early adopters and initial users of the Internet were

professors, student technicians, and others associated with universities. This pattern is very

similar to US in some ways, but what was crucially different was the greater political

involvement of people in the academy in Latin America.

Across Latin America, including Brazil and Peru, many professors, students and university staff

were heavily involved in social movements, NGOs, and political organizations. One of the

authors recalls a number of conversations in Brazil in 1989-90 with professors who considered

their main work to be not their research but their activism with political parties or social

movements for human rights, ecology, etc. Given this extensive involvement with various

activist movements, it is not surprise that professors and students who learned of the Internet at

the university began a rapid transfer of ideas and technology about the Internet to social

movements, NGOs and political parties of the left.

Impact of Global Networks of NGOs

Globally active NGOs like Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Institute for

Global Communication (IGC) have worked since the late 1980s with national and local partners

in countries like Brazil and Peru to spread policy and service alternatives in Internet access and

use. They perceived the Internet as an essential tool for organizing among progressive social

movements and NGOs in developing countries (Frederick 1993). Rather than waiting for the

national state to create conditions for Internet access, they have tended to enable national NGOs


to move in such gaps and begin to offer different kinds of Internet access services themselves, so

that social movements and NGOs could begin to use the Internet as a tool well before either

government companies or large private companies that moved into privatized or liberalized

services, like being Internet Service Providers (ISPs) (Frederick 1993).

Global activist groups like the APC encouraged and trained main national partners like Alternex

in Brazil and RCP in Peru, as well as other groups in Latin American countries. Their goal was

encouraging increasing numbers of NGOs to use Internet to network nationally, regionally across

Latin America, and globally with North American, European and other NGOs with resources or

experiences to share (Frederick 1993).

Brazilian Model of the Internet

Brazil provides a base model for examining the development of the Internet in Latin America as

it demonstrates a clear manifestation of several contending policy forces. There is not only the

early entrance of NGOs into the decision making process but also policy decisions to

liberalization ISP competition that changes the role to be played by those NGOs. Both trends

affect accessibility by various user groups but also the gradual divisions of access along class

lines and the efforts to respond to this dilemma. Key to understanding the process that underlies

the Brazilian model is the understanding of the divergence of four separate phases of Internet

access. The first definable phase is that of higher education access via an infrastructure

developed by the state-owned telecommunications conglomerate. However, as this phase

excluded the vast majority of society, several counter models developed. The second phase

involved the interaction between a Brazilian NGO and an international NGO to develop a

national point of access to global e-mail networks for use predominately by local and national

social movements and NGOs. This early divergence was significant because it involved a public

policy by an NGO rather than the government. The third phase was initiated by a government

public policy decision to liberalize the market place by allowing private Internet service

providers to operate outside of the domain of the state-run telecommunication monopolies. In

this phase a rapid commercial massification of access was seen as the private ISP model rapidly

became the dominant model for access to the increasingly global medium for telecommunication

and information exchange. The fourth phase of access once again focuses on a response to a

need within society and a response by the NGO to develop alternative access models. The need

was that the classes of society with less affluence lack access to the Internet. The strategies that

are being developed to respond to this phase will be explored later in this paper.

Phase 1 – Initial Telecom Nationalization, Development & Usage

In the early part of the 20th

century the international conglomerate ITT (International Telephone

and Telegraph) and later the Compania Telefonica Brasileiro (CTB), owned by the Canadian

holding company Brazilian Traction Light and Power, developed a telecom infrastructure that

created a teledensity of about 1.4 telephones per 100 hundred people with two-thirds of the

equipment and traffic concentrated in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (Botelho, Ferro

et al. 2002).

The Brazilian military, which came to power in a 1964 coup, placed great emphasis on

telecommunications for a number of reasons: national security, economic development, and


extension of national media reach. By the 1960s, both civilian and military leaders realized the

strategic importance of a nationally centralized telecommunication system (McClain &

Straubhaar 2002). In 1962, the Goulart administration issued decree 4.117 (Brazilian

Telecommunications Code), which granted the federal government a state monopoly to operate

and regulate (Noam 1998).

By the late 1970s the military government was able to achieve a national telecommunications

infrastructure including national microwave and satellite networks. This national infrastructure

emphasized national research and development, which when combined with investment funds,

helped drive national technological growth both for the sake of nation security and national

economic growth. One extension of the development in national telecommunications

infrastructure was the Rede National da Pesquisa (National Research Network – RNP), an

Internet backbone of the Internet in Brazil to connect the research communities in the federal and

state research universities (Dutta-Roy & Segoshi, 1996).

Phase 2 – International Intervention & NGO Access Points

The national research network for higher education was limited strictly to use by the research

universities, which unlike the situation in Peru, did not serve as lynchpin for extending access to

the other sectors of society. The first response to this vacuum of access was from the

international NGO community that allied with national NGOs to develop a national access point

for the exchange of information. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

partnered with the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE) to form

AlterNex in 1987. This new entity was based, initially, on the bulletin board system, which

allowed for the exchange of messages and chat. AlterNex operated via a single phone line that

connected to a FidoNet node in the United States to exchange e-mail messages once a day. This

constituted the first system for access to Internet in Brazil outside of the closed government

research network. In 1992 Alternex received a dedicated 64k Internet connection. With the

increased capacity, AlterNex was able to provide connectivity to NGOs around the country,

which allowed for the increased exchange of information about causes and strategies. The

primary objective of the AlterNex model was the democratization of access to information

(Afonso, 1996).

Notably in 1992, when Rio de Janeiro hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment

and Development (UNCED, also known as the "Earth Summit") AlterNex took full advantage of

the Conference to showcase its complete range of ISP services. With assistance from the APC,

the RNP and the Rio Network (Rede Rio), AlterNex coordinated UNCED’s Strategic

Information Project (UNCED SIP/Rio). The project was used by hundreds of delegates,

researchers and NGOs from around the world for electronic exchange between the official

conference center and the Global Forum. The success of the project established

IBASE/AlterNex as Brazil’s technical solutions provider for NGOs (Afonso, 1996). A

substantial customer base was developed and AlterNex became a major force in defining Brazil's

Internet development path.

The emergence of the World Wide Web in the early-1990's increased the demand for AlterNex'

online services. IBASE adjusted quickly by expanding to include WWW-based content, value-


added services and Internet consulting. Unfortunately, financial difficulties at IBASE in 1994

brought to the surface concerns that AlterNex was straying too far from the organization’s

research and social advocacy goals. Contention over this issue was resolved in 1996 by

privatising the ISP. The new for-profit, Sistema AlterNex, was owned partially by IBASE and

partially by private investors. The hope was that this private entity could both continue to serve

the needs of Alternex’s NGO client base and at the same time reach a larger, more general

market. Profits from this activity would be used to finance other IBASE projects. Unfortunately,

the company operated at a loss and there were no profits to channel back into mission-based

projects. By 1997, IBASE sold its portion of Alternex to the private investors. Alternex S/A

exists today as a commercial enterprise with out connection to the APC or the NGO community.

In essence, this model begins to fade once the massification of the Internet begins with the

growth of private ISPs that allow for all persons and organization to have full access to the

Internet at a competitive rate. The mission-based ISP simply cannot operate in a competitive

climate because both a lack of a critical mass of users and along with increased cost of

infrastructure and interconnection.

Phase 3 – Open Markets and Private ISPs

The government decided in the summer of 1995 to open access to the Internet infrastructure at

Telebras, the national telecommunications holding company, as a part of a larger strategy to

gradually privatize the entire telecommunication sector (Dutta-Roy & Segoshi, 1996). The

opening of competition in the realm of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) was an instant success.

In the first year after liberalization, the number of Internet users jumped 100,000 to 1,000,000.

This growth of Internet access in the private sector was initially focused in the area of small

entrepreneurial enterprises; however due to the high cost of access to national and international

Internet backbones the marketplace witnessed a rapid consolidation into a small number of

national ISPs. A lack of operating capital caused a subsequent integration of the national ISPs

with international telecom, ISPs and content conglomerates.

The primary example of post-liberalization enterprise in Brazil is Universo Online (UOL),

launched in 1996, which holds the distinction of being the largest Portuguese language web

portal and provider of ISP services in Latin America. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the portal was

instrumental in the development of the internet market in Brazil, and continues to lead the market

in that country across some of its products: UOL Brazil, Bol.com, Zipnet.com and UOL

International (Spanish-language sites), which operates in Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and

México. Through the joint-ownership of UOL by the Folha Group and Abril Group, both major

Brazilian media and editorial corporations from São Paulo, the portal has developed a significant

collection of original and proprietary online content, which provided the basis for UOL’s rapid

growth since 1996 (Fuentes-Bautista, Straubhaar & Spence 2002).

More recently, UOL has been transformed into an Internet holding company displaying the

advantages of vertical integration for young Internet businesses. From Internet backbone to

content creation, UOL developed the ability to move faster than its competitors. In September


1999 UOL sold 12.5% of its shares to a pool of banks1 and Reuters for 100 million US$. These

additional resources were used to reach out to neighboring nations’ markets. Nowadays UOL

operates in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Portugal and USA, becoming the best-

positioned Latin American player in the regional Internet2. Hand in hand with the

internationalization of UOL, came its "glocalization".3 The holding has diversified its presence

as content provider and technical of a number of national portals and e-businesses. Local media

companies backup UOL operations in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela, while

Google shares efforts in U.S. (Singer, October 1, 2001) and Portugal Telecom support operations

in Portugal. Recent developments in the NASDAQ market have not favored UOL’s plans for

internationalization. As investors’ focuses shifted from traffic and hype to revenues, UOL has

found that its international expansion were a huge drain on resources. The company has now

decided to ditch some of its less promising ventures (Spain and Chile) and to concentrate on

increasing revenues elsewhere (Helft, December 2000)

Phase 4 – Digital Divide & Telecenters

As indicated in the statistics from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) the overall

penetration of both telecommunications infrastructure and Internet access are still limited (see

Table 1).

Table 1. Brazil - Internet access indicators

Infrastructure 1997 2001 Production 1997 2001 Consumption 1997 2001

Telephones/100 inh. 10.6 21.8 Hosts/10,000

inh.

12.9 95.7 Literacy rate 83 85.0

Mobile phones/100

inh

2.8 16.7 ISPs 280* Internet users/10,000

inh

150.7 465.7

Computers/100 inh 3 6.3 Internet subscribers

(000)

941.6 3,422*

Source: ITU, World Bank/Pyramid Research * 2000

This division can be further quantified by examining use of the Internet from the vantage point of

class analysis (see Table 2). This drastic disparity, the so called “Digital Divide”, is currently

being addressed through the channels of not only governmental action but also through the

intervention of local, national and international NGOs, universities, municipalities, labor unions,

political parties, and international policy making entities (i.e. IMF World Bank, etc.). Frequently

the policy response to this need and subsequent development is manifested in the form of

1 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity, Blackstone Capital Partners III, Providence Equity Partners Inc.,

Credit Suisse First Boston Garantia, DB Capital Partners Latin America, Hambrecht & Quist, Latinvest Asset

Management. 2 In March 2002, UOL announced it had 1.3-1.5 million subscribers, 20 million users or unique visitors per month,

which made it the most heavily used ISP and portal of Latin America.

3 Glocalization has been used by Robertson (1995) and others to describe the local adaptation of imported models.

The term was first used to describe the Japanese business practice of importing but adapting various technologies

and models.


telecenters, although there are variations on this model such as information kiosks and the CDI

model.

Table 2. Brazil – Digital Divide

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

February 2000 September 2000 December 2000 May 2001

Percentage of Brazilian Internet Users Divided by Class A e B

Percentage of Brazilian Internet Users Divided by Class C, D, E

Source: IDG Now and Ibope INTERACT Digital, 2001

Federal and state governments in Brazil have understood that the problem of increasing Internet

access and use requires state and private action. In mid-2000 the government announced new

plans to enhance e-government solutions and public access asking for private support. The plan

Porta Aberta aims at giving free e-mail addresses and providing public Internet access to

Brazilian citizens through telecenters. States, cities and NGOs are also moving quickly to install

telecenters (E- marketers, Feb. 2001).

A telecenter or infocenter can be defined as a shared site that provides public access to

information technologies (Proenza et al., 2001). Telecenters are becoming an almost universal

vehicle to enhance access to the Internet, in particular for low- income groups. Brazil is currently

committing a great deal of effort and resources to build a national telecenter network that

democratizes access to technology.

Internet access kiosks are being installed this year in selected post offices of Rio de Janeiro, the

greater metropolitan area of São Paulo and the interior of São Paulo state (Elkin, February 2001).

On November 16, 2000, São Paulo Governor, Mário Covas, inaugurated the first "infocenter" of

a network that should include 60 locations in Greater São Paulo and 60 more locations in the

interior of the state by the end of 2001. This project, called Acessa São Paulo, should benefit 3.5

million "paulistas" having a budget of R$ 4,8 million and partnerships with companies like

Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and Telefônica. Located in a neighborhood on the southern

periphery of the city, in the neighborhood Jardim São Luís, this first center is already being

utilized to train young people and adults in informatics, use of the Internet and the generation of

local information. Goiânia and Porto Alegre were cited in the inauguration as cities planned for

similar systems and more will follow. Private companies such as NetCash-PopBanco (an


enterprise), Caixa Econômica Federal (a government bank), Globo Cabo (a cable internet

provider), Telefônica Empresas (the business division of Telefónica of Spain), recently

announced similar efforts to build points of access at neighborhood paderias (bakeries,) which

Brazilians typically visit every day.

One example of a variation on the telecenters model can be found in the socio-educational

approach to teaching information technology developed by the Comité para Democratização de

Informatica (Committee for Democracy in Information Technology – CDI), a Brazil based NGO

with the two-fold mission of promoting digital inclusion and creating awareness of Citizens

Rights principles through the use of information technology.

CDI opens Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools in partnership with community-

based associations, providing free computer equipment, software and implementing educational

strategies for a continuous training of local instructors. Through periodic visits, CDI coordinators

monitor its performance identifying key challenges and opportunities. Schools coordinators work

together with CDI representatives to find creative ways of addressing problems, formulating and

sharing solutions. Each school is an autonomous unit, self-managed and self-sustainable through

a symbolic contribution collected from its students. This fund covers the maintenance costs, and

the payment of instructors, in an authentic “social enterprise”. Furthermore, the model is based

on the concept of helping people help themselves. CDI trains the future teachers of the schools,

who, in turn, will train others back in their communities.

Presently, there are 617 autonomous and self-sustaining Information Technology and Citizens

Rights Schools using CDI´s methodology and model concept. As a result of the organization's

work, more than 263,000 children and young people have been trained in information technology

and introduced to citizens’ rights. In a recent evaluation, carried by an external consultant group,

86% of the students answered that CDI Schools had a positive impact in their lives, such as

going back to regular schools, making new friends or staying away from drugs. CDI is

continuously expanding its national and international network. CDI is active in 19 Brazilian

states, as well as, in Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Angola

and South Africa, totaling 48 Information Technology and Citizens Rights Schools.

Brazil is now in the crossroad of balancing forces between commercial and public interests that

can effectively enhance people's participation in the information revolution. The major challenge

ahead is to build a public access network that meets people's needs by becoming a tool to

increase their living standards. This analysis understands technology as a result of the social

relations linking users, the innovation and the knowledge that mediates between them.

Telecenters can be a potent tool to ease this relationship but they should be placed within a

strategy of integral social development.

Peruvian Model of the Internet

Phase 1 –The Internet rush: from the academy to NGO-run cabina pública

The Internet entered Peru in 1992 by the hand of a non-profit organization, Red Científica

Peruana (RCP), a private non-profit initiative to open public access points set in motion by


academicians. Similar to the process in Brazil, the Internet in Peru flourished in the cradle of

public universities that enjoyed access through a State founded network. However, different from

the Brazilian case, academic networks rapidly tied into the social fabric of the country, mainly in

the city of Lima, where they held and still hold close links with community and social

organizations. Accounts collected among member of the pioneering group coincide in identifying

poor infrastructure, and the tremendous need of the majority of the population with telephone

services, and with no chance to gain access to it in the short term, as the reasons for engaging in

the development of a model that prioritizes of public access to the Internet4. In contrast to Brazil,

where most organizations and many individuals had telephone lines and were beginning to

acquire computers, in Peru, even urban intellectuals and activists did not foresee getting

individual access to the Internet anytime soon, so they made a clear, early decision to pursue

public access.

1992 was also the year in which the Peruvian government announced a plan to reorganize the

telecommunication sector but the program did not include any actions to coordinate with the

efforts being made by RCP for the advancement of Internet connections or use. Between 1992

and 94, the government merged and vertically integrated the two regional monopolies that served

the nation, and by May 1994 it proceeded to privatize the holding. Telefónica of Spain won the

public bid for the holding acquiring rights to developed basic telecommunication business in

monopoly conditions for the following 6 years.

The monopoly franchise set out goals of network expansion (250,000 new lines by the year

1999), and provisions for the installation of at least one telephone in 1,540 rural settlements with

population over 500 inhabitants. During the following two years, Telefónica de Perú (TdP)

committed itself to maintain control of the traditional telecommunication market and did not pay

attention to what investors regarded as a marginal market in Peru: the market of Internet access.

Meanwhile RCP went into significant expansion through two basic strategies: direct operation of

telecenters or cabinas públicas,5 and the development of a franchise model of the business based

upon association with small entrepreneurs. (One could call this model a social franchise, since

the RCP did not charge small businesses for its use, indeed they provided considerable training

and consulting in the development of small cabinas for free.) Former and current directors of

RCP interviewed by the authors recognize the 1994 installation of the first telecenter in the

affluent neighborhood of Miraflores (c.f. Holmes, 2001), as the keystone in the development of a

network of public access points that nowadays cover the whole country, including some of the

most remote towns of Peru. The success of this cabina in particular, attracted the attention of the

public and of a large amount of professionals with small capital, who were faired during the

privatization and reorganization of State owned companies in Peru between 1994 and 1996.

4 Interviews conducted by Straubhaar and Fuentes-Bautista in Lima, Peru, April 2002. 5 Cabinas Públicas are a type of telecenter, that is, “a shared site that provides public access to

information and communication technologies. Cabinas Públicas in Peru is a franchise model of

telecenter by which the operator and ISP confers to a small entrepreneur the right to operate an

access point with basic Internet connection. The manager of the telecenter offer the service for a

small cost. Internet telephony, emailing, chats, and music downloads are the services with more

demand in Peru (Proenza et at, 2001)


From its site in Miraflores, RCP personnel organized and offered weekly workshops not only on

Internet use but also on telecenter management. The workshops offered at no cost were a key

social investment for the creation of an extended network of cabinas. Between 1995 and 1999,

RCP provided training to more than 50,000 people (Holmes, 2001). In a country with less than 4

% of telephone penetration, the “voracious demand for communication and connectivity”

(Proenza et al, 2001:7) became a fertile ground for this pioneering initiative.

Phase 2 –Growth of the RCP: from the NGO to the small business model

By the beginning of 1996, and based on its early economic success, RCP decided to initiate

commercial operations as ISP providing dial up access and dedicated lines to cabinas as well as

the general public. During all this period, RCP enjoyed a privilege connection to the Internet

through State owned, satellite circuits accessible through rights given to the universities and

public educational system, which basically translated into minimal operation costs and low rates

for the customers and users. International Business Machines (IBM) came into play under the

same scheme, and at the beginning of 1996, both companies were the only ISPs in the market

(Briceño, 1998).

RCP was the leader providing services to 76% of private users (Briceño, 1998). RCP was

already well-known by its telecenter program (Cabinas Públicas), and its Internet portal. By the

end of 2000, RCP managed 30 and gave support to 470 of such centers (ITU, 2000). The success

achieved by the RCP attracted competitor from the private sector, including major players such

as TdP, Southwestern Bell and AT&T, the later brought to the country by the liberalization of

telecommunication services. A number of small firms that copies the RCP model also followed

targeting particular segments of the market, such as videogames for adolescents. Holmes (2001)

has explained the striving action of small entrepreneurs in the cabinas business (known as

cabineros) as the newest representation of the informal economy characteristic of the urban

landscape in Peru. Cabinas are meeting previous unfulfilled demands for libraries, study places,

recreational facilities and community centers of low income communities in Peru.

TdP initiated operations in the private ISP market in 1997 launching two related services Infovia

and Unired. The first targeted the dial-up market and the second the business segment of leased

lines. Making use of their infrastructure and integrated structure, TdP made its competitors

Unired's customers. Under the monopoly franchise awarded to TdP, IBM and RDP could not by-

pass the holding to access the international Internet (Briceño, 1998). Infovia entered the market

offering tariff plan, which reduced the price of Internet connection to the local telephone charge.

At the end of 1997 RDP accused Infovia-TdP of anticompetitive behavior through price

discrimination and Ospitel had to step in to settle the dispute. The regulatory agency found proof

of cross-subsidy and price discrimination, but the dispute went unsettled until 1998, the final

year of TdP monopoly (Briceño). Competition attracted more ISPs and in 1999, the cost of one

hour of computer/Internet connection varied between 0.7 and 0.85 US dollar (Proenza et al.,

2000). However, the estimated monthly cost of 20 hours of Internet use was 21.99 US dollar, a

charge equivalent to 12% of the monthly per capita income of Peruvians (ITU, 2000), so poor,

working class and even many middle class people still tended to go to the cabinas. A evaluation

of telecenters in Latin America and the Caribbean made by the Inter American Development

Bank and the Food and Agricultural Organization conclude that cabinas in Peru were “excellent


vehicles for increasing Internet access”, in particular among the “low-income population” served

by them. Although private ISP Internet rates in Peru are lower that in countries such as Ecuador

and Argentina, they still represent a barrier to enhance access to the Net. A comparison in

informatization indicators in Peru, show the significant growth of users in the last four year

(Table 2). Much if not most of that growth can be attributed to cabinas users.

Table 2. Peru- Informatization indicators

Infrastructure 1997 2001 Production 1997 2001 Consumption 1997 2001

Telephones/100 inh. 6.8 9.8 Hosts/10,000 inh. 1.9 5.2 Literacy rate 88.5 89.2

Mobile phones/100 inh 1.8 5.9 ISPs 4 54* Internet users/10,000 inh 80.6 1149.7

Computers/100 inh 3.6 4.8

Source: ITU, World Bank/Pyramid Research *2000

Phase 3 – Open Markets and Private ISPs

Public access remains the major Internet alternative for Peru, and the government, the public and

ISPs seem interested in making use of the opportunity. In 2000, 48.5% of the Peruvians that went

on line declared telecenters as their access point followed by work place and home (INEI, 2000).

The latest report of Internet in Peru estimated 1,745 cabinas in the country (Osiptel, May 2002)

RCP and TdP have continued plans to enhance the telecenter program. In the height of the

1998/1999 dispute between the major ISPs, RCP accused TdP of inefficient management of the

national telecommunication network, and successive boycotts to the RCP service. Since 1999 it

became evident that the crucial point of controversy was the use of Internet Telephony in

telecenters. Table 2 shows a virtual halt in growth infrastructure with the exception of mobile

telephony. Only 20% of households with computers have Internet access and cost is the main

reason for lack of connection (INEI, 2000).

In spite of the country’s modest infrastructure and economic constraints, the vitality of the

Peruvian demand is an incentive for the future growth of Internet services. Statistics at the

individual and business level show that Peruvians use the web mainly for work. In 1999 Peru

was the fifth country in B2B e-commerce in the region (ITU, 2000), and more than the half of

the customers in telecenters employs the web for different types of jobs (academic and personal

business) (INEI, 2000; Proenza et al, 2000). Peruvian portals reflect the importance of these

applications. Olé (TdP-Terra/ Telefonica of Spain) and Yachay (RCP) are the most popular

portals, and both offer B2B information and services. Both also back up the flourishing business

of telecenters providing information on locations, special plans of access and training programs.

By 2001, the Cabinas represented a profitable part of the overall telecom market in Peru (See

Graph 2). Major telecommunication firms in the country have gone into de business or serve as

intermediaries to retailers. The advance of major commercial forces in the Peruvian Internet

market is already a reality. The most recent report of OSIPTEL the regulatory agency, on

Internet in Peru (May 2002), shows Terra Networks, TdP’s ISP, dominating the market of

Internet access from home (52%) followed by RCP (13%). Only recently, the Peruvian

government has started to incorporate the cabinas model to the public policy model of universal


access in the country (FITEL 2001). Peru seems to be at the crossroad of balancing commercial

interest and social forces with social needs.

Graph 2: Fixed dedicated lines subscribers in 2001

Gov.

/Educ./

Others

65%

Bus.

15%Cabinas

20%

DISCUSSION

The early social turn of the Internet in Brazil and Peru had common origins in the close

connection of activists within the University to activists within society and in highly influential

contacts with the APC/IGC. However, the form of action decided on by Internet activists in the

two countries took quite different directions. Development of the telecommunications

infrastructure in the two countries was quite different, which guided the activists’ choices. Brazil under military until mid 1980s had expended considerable public funds and incurred

considerable public debt in order to extend telephone service to the point where most institutions

and organizations had access, most towns had at least a pay phone and frequently a few phone

lines (Fuentes-Bautista 2002), from which – in fact-- local elites and increasingly activists could

get to for Internet access. In contrast, in Peru, even the main activist organizations needed public

access, since many individuals and many NGO and movement institutions did not have access to

telephone lines. The first Peruvian telecenter, or cabina publica, went into one of the most

prestigious neighborhoods in Lima in 1994 and found great success providing public

connectivity to a segment of the privileged population. This speaks to the need of

communications existing even in the middle and upper middle classes of society in Peru in the

early 1990s, in contrast to the equivalent social groups in Brazil.

With 32.4 % of the region's number of users and 45 % of the regional hosts, Brazil is considered

the leading Latin American market by investors and marketers that set in motion the world

digital economy (Elkin, 2001; Rojo, 2000). Brazil experienced a very strong surge of growth

from 1996, when private ISPs began to offer service around the country to those who could find

a telephone line and computer. Those new affluent users also represented most of the potential

market for e-business. However, those with that level of connectivity and income have almost all

been incorporated into the Internet public and those that are left do not have either the telephone

fixed line connectivity (many new telephone users have cell phones) or the income to buy a

computer and pay monthly ISP fees. For observers less concerned with potential revenues of the

e-economy and more concerned with social inclusion, Brazil presents a contradictory trend: the

deceleration of users' growth, which has caused the country to fall lower in the ranks of Internet

use in the region. The expansion of infrastructure is not accompanying the demand for Internet

Source: OSIPTEL 2001


use further down into the ranks of the lower middle class, working class and poor, or into rural

areas. Brazil has fallen from the fourth to the seventh place in the rank of user per capita in the

region between 1998 and 2001 (Table 1). Meanwhile, Peru has grown by thousands of percent of

increase in the number of new users to gain the third place in the overall penetration of users in

society. Public access possibilities in Peru permit the constant expansion of the user base,

whereas the user base in Brazil is stalemated until public access growth to include those who do

not have the connectivity or income for in-home access.

Table 1. Internet Use Rank in Latin America

Rank

1998

Users/

100

people

Rank

2001

Users/

100

people

1 Uruguay

2 Costa Rica

3 Chile

4 Brazil

5 Venezuela

6 Mexico

7 Panama

8 Colombia

9 Peru

10 Argentina

6.99

2.60

1.68

1.51

1.50

1.41

1.08

0.89

0.81

0.55

1 Chile

2 Uruguay

3 Peru

4 Costa Rica

5 Argentina

6 Venezuela

7 Brazil

8 Mexico

9 Colombia

10 Panama

20.00

11.90

11.49

9.33

8.00

5.27

4.65

3.62

2.69

3.17

The ITU has warned that among Latin American countries, Brazil presents the most class-

stratified access to the Internet (ITU, 2000). Interviews with Internet users have shown the

emergence of an elite that uses the Internet to become further integrated with the global elite

(Hannerz, 1992). This role of the Internet for the Brazilian elite has strong digital divide

implications, since it may widen gaps between Brazilian elites and others in terms of access to

information, to economic opportunity and to global networks of contacts. Initial work also shows

a growing use of the Internet by middle classes who find in it a more in-depth version of the

national media they already know, represented for example, by UOL.

Growth of Internet users 1998 - 2001

209

701

157

1327

251

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Brazil Chile Mexico Peru Venezuela

%


The commercialization of the Brazilian Internet is taking place at very fast pace in a process

characterized by vertical and horizontal concentration of both access and content. Scarcities in

the backbone infrastructure have structured a market driven by the supply of basic services,

which tends to promote concentration of ISPs. The government has allowed and even stimulated

vertical and horizontal integration of UOL to proceed. The recent announcement of a UOL

strategic alliance with Embratel (MCI) will allow UOL direct access to Internet peering points at

faster speed, a privilege that not many Brazilian ISPs can offer now. Others trying to survive are

pushed to association with large corporations, which most of the time are transnational capital in

search for local partnership.

Fortunately, a number of organizations are beginning to create strategies for offering public

access to the Internet in Brazil, to go beyond limits of what the private sector will do. The initial

lead was taken by a national NGO not unlike the Peruvian RCP in many ways, the Committee

for the Democratization of the Internet, based in Rio and run by Roberto Baggio, who has

received a great deal of attention from both the NGO and corporate sectors for his approach

which tends to partner local NGOs with corporate sponsors, like Microsoft, to implement

branches of his social franchise model for setting up and operating telecenters. Baggio and the

CDI tend to stress learning work skills, along with access, per se, which has been controversial

with those who want to stress civic participation or social movements instead. His stress on

learning Microsoft software has also been controversial with those who stress a budding trend

toward open source software, like Linux, in order to reduce economic dependence on costly

licensed software, like that of Microsoft. State and city governments in Brazil have begun to

offer other telecenter models, more focused on access, per se, and civic participation. They tend

to partner, as does the CDI, with local neighborhood social groups and NGOs.

This movement in Brazil reflects an interesting decentralization and defederalization of policy,

since many initiatives are now being taken more by NGOs, corporate sponsors, and city and state

governments, rather than the federal or national state. In some ways, this reflects a long-standing

Brazilian balance between federal and state/local power. While such state/local initiatives work

relatively well for more affluent states, like Sao Paulo, they are not like to work nearly as well

for a number of more impoverished states, which tend to depend much more on federal resources

and federal initiatives.

In Peru the process launched by thriving NGOs and small businesses have been finally

welcomed into the realm of public policy. FITEL, the national fund responsible for the

implementation of universal service programs has successfully completed a pilot plan based on

telecenter development for rural areas, and it is about to embrace officially the cabinas model

into its strategy to extend the service to isolated or economically depressed populations. Peru is a

clear example of how social agents can become influential public policy agents and generators of

change. On the one hand, the Peruvian example shows that should be a community articulated

around social interests, and on the other hand, it is crucial to count with a socially sensitive

regulator that opens spaces for policy change to work with models that come from below..


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THE SOCIAL SHAPING OF INTERNET FROM BELOW · 2019. 12. 21. · ISPs, and created models almost like non-profit franchises, for how to set up small cybercafes or telecenters. Within